I certainly do think. . . . that you did 'bully' in the sale of that concern [the Unionist]. If I have proper understanding . . . you get $5,000 and are released from all further trouble about the concern, now and forever.
Within four years after leaving the Statesman, Simpson was to place himself near the top rung in poesy with his "Beautiful Willamette," which, written at Albany in 1870, will keep readers enjoying its flowing rhythm and haunting melody as long as the river shall run. The last stanza:
On the roaring waste of ocean
Shall thy scattered waves be tossed,
'Mid the surge's rhythmic thunder
Shall thy silver tongues be lost.
Oh! thy glimmering rush of gladness
Mocks this turbid life of mine!
Racing to the wild Forever
Down the sloping paths of Time.
Onward ever,
Lovely river,
Softly calling to the sea;
Time, that scars us,
Maims and mars us,
Leaves no track or trench on thee.
Sam Clarke, in a lesser way than Simpson, was himself a poet of considerable repute, besides being a capable newspaper man and highly versatile. Born in 1827, in Cuba, where his father was a merchant, and educated in New York City, he was a gold-hunting forty-niner in California, coming to Oregon in 1850. A year later he drew the plan of the new city of Portland on the occasion of its incorporation. Buying a donation claim near Salem, he resided there for several years, in fact came to regard Salem as his settled home. In 1862 he became the first clerk of the new Baker county. Running a sawmill in Portland was another of his many activities.
In 1864 he was back in Portland as editor of the Oregonian. Two years later he was one of the incorporators of the Oregon Central Railroad, which was taken over by Ben Holladay in 1868. In the Modoc Indian War he made a fine record as correspondent for the New York Times. After a short time on the Salem Daily Record in 1867 he purchased the Unionist, as already noted. Changing the name back to the Statesman, he conducted the paper as a daily for a time. With D. W. Craig he purchased the Willamette Farmer in 1872, buying his partner out eight years later. In 1897 the paper was merged with the North Pacific Rural Spirit. Clarke now spent several years at the national capital as librarian in the United States
